200 Russians stuck in Simferopol after Avianova cancelled flights

SIMFEROPOL, October 7 (Itar-Tass) —— Some 200 passengers have been stuck at the airport of Ukraine’s Crimean city of Simferopol after Russia’s low-cost airline Avianova cancelled all its fifteen October flights to Moscow starting from Friday.

The airport’s executive director, Sergei Shapka, said the airport’s administration plans to provide these passengers neither with hotel allocations nor with meals. “But we promise to inform them about the situation,” he said. “A special desk has been organized where a representative from the Russian air carrier answers all questions from passengers.”

“Russians will not be left all along with their problem, we shall help them,” said Russian consul general in Simferopol Vladimir Andreyev. “We have established contact with the airport’s administration, local authorities and are now agreeing our further steps, since there are women and children among the passengers. We have also asked the Russian Air Transport Agency to engage other Russian airlines to help take the passengers home.”

According to the Russian diplomat, this is not the first such case in the current year. In July, Russians were also got stuck in Simferopol after Kontinent airline went bankrupt. “We thank the administration of the Simferopol airport for their efforts to accommodate our passengers at a hotel, provide them with meals and to take them to the railway station,” he said.

In the meantime, the executive director of the Simferopol airport noted that “the Russian side promised to refund our expenses but it never did.” “We have sustained losses and now will discuss the problem with Russian diplomats,” he said.

Avianova has cancelled all its flights starting from October 10 after its shareholder, the U.S.-based Indigo Partners Fund, decided to stop financing its activity. Avianova has sold about 70,000 tickets for its October flights. But unexpectedly the company cancelled flights from October 7.